The Colorado Senate won the second annual Hop the Vote brewing contest Saturday, taking the trophy from the state House in a contest that drew 1,000 votes at the Great American Beer Festival.

The final GABF vote read like close election race: Senate 52 percent, House 48 percent.

“Winning the 2015 Hop the Vote competition means that we get to bring the brewer’s trophy to its rightful home in the state Senate,” jested Sen. Chris Holbert, R-Parker. “We’re tied now with each chamber scoring a win, which ought to liven up the 2016 competition.”

A controversial move to cancel the GOP presidential poll at the 2016 caucus is facing new questions that may lead to reconsideration of the Colorado Republican Party’s decision.

Mike Kopp, one of two RNC committee members from Colorado, told The Denver Post on Friday that the party misinterpreted how the new national rules work.

The Republican National Committee approved a rule in 2012 to require that states bind their delegates to the winner of a caucus poll. This upended earlier precedent that allowed Colorado’s delegates to go into the national convention unpledged to a particular candidate — regardless of who won the state’s caucus vote.

The concern that the winner in Colorado may exit the race by the national convention, and the desire for delegates to have freedom to choose the best candidate, led to the state party nixing the straw poll.

But Kopp said that rationale is incorrect. He said national party rules allow delegates committed to a candidate who quits to go elsewhere. “You can unbind your delegates if the candidate is no longer in the race,” he said.

“Rep Klingenschmitt is pushing double jeopardy on Colorado citizens. These people have paid the price for their crimes and there is a process for them to be able to vote again and be productive members of society. Tragically Rep Klingenschmitt wants to prevent them from being employed to score some political talking points, undermining once again our citizens’ trust in elected government to promote liberty and justice for all.”

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Rep. Gordon Klingenschmitt is fighting the sunset review legislation that reauthorizes the state’s medical marijuana rules, because he doesn’t think felons deserve a second chance if it comes to growing or selling pot.

The conference committee made up of House and Senate membrs met on his amendment Tuesday morning and voted him down, 5-1. The compromise now has to pass both chambers before midnight Wednesday or medical marijuana will remain legal, thanks to Amendment 20, but the regulations will sunset and go away.

The Parker Republican said Friday he believes House Bill 1388 is too complex for lawmakers to digest in the waning days of the session and it should be introduced at the start of the 2016 session.

“If this is a good idea today then it ought to be a good idea next January. It is such a substantial bill. Let’s take the summer to talk this through, ask the tough questions, bring it back next year,” he said.

The bill was introduced in the House Tuesday, heard in committee Wednesday and debated on the House floor Thursday. The final vote is expected Friday. If it passes, it still must be heard in the Senate. The session ends Wednesday.

The other sponsors of the measure are Reps. Dan Pabon, D-Denver, and Bob Rankin, R-Carbondale, and Sen. Andy Kerr, D-Lakewood.

Holbert said the idea was presented to him as a way to reduce taxpayers’ liability regarding the Public Colorado Public Employees Retirement Association. PERA is only 64 percent fully funded. It could also reduce the time frame for full funding.

Rep. Polly Lawrence, R-Douglas County, and Rep. Dan Pabon, D-Denver, explain the thrill of victory after the Colorado House’s beer-brewing team won the inaugural Hop the Vote Challenge craft beer competition at Denver’s Great American Beer Festival last October. (Photo by Denny Hancock, Sergeant at Arms, Colorado House of Representatives.)

When it comes to drinking and thinking, the Colorado House of Representatives is tops in hops over the state Senate, a sobering fact that was announced with fanfare Friday morning.

The House won the first Hop the Vote Challenge during the Great American Beer Festival in Denver last October. The House’s Representative Saison, the Hopposition Candidate, beat the Senate’s Upper Chamber Fresh Hop Pale Ale with 51.9 percent of the votes from tasters who drank both during the three-day festival.

During a legislative hearing in 2014 to overturn an ammunition magazine limit, Weld County Sheriff John Cooke holds up two high capacity 30-round magazines to demonstrate that it is impossible to identify which is an illegal magazine and which is a legal magazine. He is seated next to Rep. Chris Holbert, R-Parker. This year, both Cooke and Holbert are senators and have introduced a bill to overturn the magazine limit. (Photo By Helen H. Richardson/ The Denver Post)

Four Democrats have signed into a Senate bill that repeals a ban on large-capacity ammunition magazines, one of the most controversial measures of the 2013 legislative session.

Senate Democrats co-sponsoring the bill are Kerry Donovan of Vail, Cheri Jahn of Wheat Ridge and Leroy Garcia. In the House, Democrat Ed Vigil of Fort Garland is a co-sponsor. Vigil was vocal in his opposition of his party’s gun-control measures.

The prime sponsors of Senate Bill 175 are Republican Sens. Chris Holbert of Parker and John Cooke of Greeley and Rep. Steve Humphrey of Severance. The bill was introduced Friday afternoon and assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

A hearing portended fireworks Tuesday afternoon in the Senate Finance Committee. Chairman Tim Neville, R-Littleton, started the two-hour discussion of regulating licenses for growers, sellers and vendors by calling medical marijuana “the granddaddy of them all” and “everyone’s favorite” topic.

What is at stake as legislators this session re-examine the rules is how the business of medical marijuana continues independently of its recreational, heavily taxed counterpart. Legislative changes this session could strengthen or weaken requirements on the businesses and employees who get the pot all the way from the seeds to the patient.

In the end, however, only one of the 15 recommendations presented by senior policy analyst Brian Tobias of the Department of Regulatory Agencies got a yes or a no: Senators agreed that the regulatory program should be extended to 2019. Failing to do that much wouldn’t have made medical pot go away, but it would have made it unregulated.

For many lawmakers, their favorite reception of the year is the one sponsored on opening day by the Colorado Restaurant Association.

For Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper the event is like going home: He owned restaurants before going into politics in 2003 and getting elected mayor of Denver. Hickenlooper always gets a hearty reception but new Senate President Bill Cadman, a Colorado Springs Republican, might have stolen the show with his brief remarks.

He said the words that make his wife of 24 years happy these days start with “Let’s go out to eat.”

A vacancy committee tapped Kim Ransom, a former legislative aide, to run as the Republican nominee for a Douglas County seat in the Colorado House.

Kim Ransom

Ransom beat four other contenders in the first vote Saturday for the seat now held by state Rep. Chris Holbert, R-Parker, who is running for the Senate seat held by Sen. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, who is term limited. The other four vying for Holbert’s seat in Saturday’s vote were Debbie Cohen, Kim Monson, Debbie Lewis and Donald Parrot.

“I was very lucky and I was very blessed,” Ransom said of the vote.

The 55-year-old mother of four is a customer service representative for a vacation rentals outlet, VRBO.com. She previously worked as a legislative aide for two Douglas County state senators, Republicans John Evans and Tom Wiens.

The winner of the June GOP primary for Holbert’s seat was Douglas County Commissioner Jack Hilbert, but he dropped out of the race after being tapped by Democratic Gov. John Hicklenlooper’s administration to serve as the child welfare hotline system manager for the Colorado Department of Human Services starting July 14. Another vacancy committee will meet Monday to pick a replacement for Hilbert’s seat on the Douglas County board.

Ransom faces Democrat Karen Jae Smith in November, but it will be tough for Smith as the seat is in the heart of Republican Country.

Within hours, the Republican caucus held a meeting, with Rep. Chris Holbert, R-Parker, leading an effort to remove Priola. The attempt eventually failed, but it was clear Priola was on shaky ground within the party.

On Monday, Priola, currently in his third term in the House, said he decided to give up the fight.

“This was all really about personalities–it’s sad some members decided to make a personal issue out of a policy issue,” Priola said, adding that he was absolutely right to back Hamner’s amendment. “I feel good about this; I’ve got better things to do than play their games.”

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.